5 facts you need to know about Yemen and its conflicts

Followers of the Houthi movement demonstrate to show support to the movement in Yemen's northwestern city of Saada March 26, 2015. (Reuters/Naiyf Rahma) / Reuters

One of the poorest and most violent countries in the Middle East, Yemen is also an area of strategic importance for regional players – and some of the world’s most dangerous terror groups. RT explains the underlying reasons behind the nation's conflicts.

Strategic location

The territory that lies within Yemen’s borders is one of the most
ancient cradles of civilization in the Middle East, once known as
‘Arabia Felix’ – Latin for “happy” or “fortunate” – in ancient
times. The lands of Yemen were more fertile than most on the
Arabian Peninsula, as they received more rain due to high
mountains. But because of declining natural resources, including
oil, Yemen and its population of about 26 million are now very
poor.

Still, the country boasts a strategic location on the
southwestern tip of Arabia. It is located along the major sea
route from Europe to Asia, near some of the busiest Red Sea
shipping and trading lanes. Millions of barrels of oil pass
through these waters daily in both directions, to the
Mediterranean through the Suez Canal and from the oil refineries
in Saudi Arabia to the energy-hungry Asian markets. The Yemeni
transport hub of Aden was one of the world's busiest ports in the
20th century.

North & South Yemen, plus the tribes

Although the history of the lands of Yemen date back thousands of
years, modern Yemen itself is a young nation, with its current
borders having taken shape in 1990, after North and South Yemen
united. Before that, both parts were involved in conflicts of
their own.

Northern Yemen was established as a republic in 1970, after years
of civil war between royalists and republicans, with the first
supported by Saudi Arabia and the latter by Egypt. Yemen’s former
president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, rose to power through the military
and held power for decades. Although Southern Yemen agreed to
merge with Saleh’s northern republic in 1990, they soon became
unhappy about the move. The north and south became embroiled in a
new civil war, resulting in thousands of casualties, while
Saleh’s power prevailed.

Outside big Yemeni cities, there are a number of tribal areas
that are effectively self-governing. With a large number of
civilians being in possession of arms – it is believed there are
more guns in the country than citizens – local tribal militias
often repress the national army and apply their own laws, based
on traditions rather than the state’s constitution. Houthis have
risen to be one of the most powerful militias in Yemen.

Sunni-Shia rift

The majority of Yemen’s population is Muslim, but it is split
between various branches of Islam – mainly Sunni or Zaidi Shia.
The divisions between the Sunnis and the Shia are based on a
long-running religious conflict that started as a dispute about
the Prophet Mohammed’s successor. While Shia Muslims believe the
prophet’s cousin should have filled the role, Sunnis support the
picking of Muhammad’s close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr, as the
first caliph of the Islamic nation.

That said, Zaidi Shias – making up about 40 percent of Yemen’s
population – are the only Shia Muslim sect that do not share the
belief in the infallibility and divine choice of imams, strongly
revered as spiritual leaders among Shias. This causes them to
align closer to Sunni practices.

At the same time, over the past decades, strict and puritanical
Salafi and Wahhabi ideas of Sunni Islam – coming from neighboring
Saudi Arabia – have become increasingly influential in Yemen.

Houthis

Houthis represent the Zaidi branch of Shiite Islam from the far
north of Yemen, adjacent to the Saudi border. The name of the
group comes from a leading family of the tribe. Its member – a
Zaidi religious leader and former member of the Yemeni
parliament, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi – was accused by the
government of masterminding a Houthi rebellion, including violent
anti-Israeli and anti-American demonstrations, in 2004. The
Yemeni regime ordered a manhunt for al-Houthi, which ended with
hundreds of arrests and the death of the Zaidi leader, with
dozens of his supporters also killed.

Since then, the Houthis have been actively fighting with the
central power, demanding greater political influence and accusing
the government of allying with mainly Wahhabi Saudi Arabia while
neglecting national development and the needs of the traditional
Zaidi tribes.

While Yemen’s now embattled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has
claimed that Houthis are supported by Hezbollah – the Lebanese
Shia militia – some Western officials have alleged that Iran, one
of the few Muslim nations of the Shia branch, financially
supports Houthis in an effort to control Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
This allegation is denied by the Houthis themselves.

Al-Qaeda & ISIS

Since 2009, Yemen has been an operational base of Al-Qaeda
militants. After the Yemeni and Saudi branches of Al-Qaeda merged
to form Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group
became one of the world’s biggest exporters of terrorism, with
the US considering it the most dangerous branch of Al-Qaeda.
Osama bin Laden’s family lived in southern Yemen before
emigrating to Saudi Arabia.

Yemen’s fight against AQAP has been largely supported by the
United States. Since 2007, the US has supplied more than $500
million in military aid to Yemen through programs managed by the
Defense Department and State Department, and conducted
controversial drone strikes targeting terrorists in the country.

Al-Qaeda’s ideology is based on radical Sunni Islam and thus is
hostile to Houthis, who have also been at war with AQAP
militants.

With several forces fighting in the country – including the
official government, Houthis, and AQAP – the Yemeni chaos
provided a fertile ground for extremism. Extremist groups
affiliated with the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) now
operate in Yemen, conducting terror acts against both the
military and civilians. In the latest March 20 attack, over 100
people were killed and some 250 injured in suicide bomb attacks
on mosques in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, with ISIS militants
claiming responsibility for the assault.